Our Team

Cory Solomon, Director of International Tours & Tournaments

Cory Solomon serves as the Director of Recruiting for International Tours and Tournaments. Solomon is uniquely qualified for these positions because of his extensive background in coaching volleyball at the collegiate, juniors, and high school levels, and also his years travelling and living abroad. After earning his bachelors degree from the University of Utah in 1987, he served as an assistant coach at Utah for five seasons. During his final three seasons, the “Utes” advanced to three consecutive NCAA 2nd round appearances.

After leaving the University of Utah, Solomon joined forces with Tim Kelly and assumed a lead role in the development of an International Recruiting Service as well as the expansion of Bring It Promotion’s International Tours. Solomon originally conducted business from his home in Innsbruck, Austria, and had the opportunity to watch European volleyball first hand. Living in Europe also afforded him the opportunity to serve as a coach on numerous Bring It Promotions tours. Solomon coached the Bring It USA team to a first place finish in the Sibillini, Italian Tournament with a win over the top under-20 team from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He has led numerous tours through the Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Japan. Solomon is also the director of the Global Challenge tournament which is held each July in Pula, Croatia and features over 24 teams from around the world. In addition, this year Solomon returned to his roots of coaching to lead the Chitwan Tigers to the Championship of the AADHI AABADI Nepal National Championships in Katmandu, Nepal.

Solomon resides in Maribor, Slovenia with his wife Andreja and their two daughters Daša and Mija. 

Brooke Rundle – Executive Director of Central America and Director of Marketing & Development

Brooke Rundle is the Executive Director of Central America and Director of Marketing & Development for Bring It Promotions. She went on her first BIP Exposure Tour in Europe as a player in 2001.  By the summer of 2002 she was the Director of Player Management for women before she moved from player placements to tour management in 2008.

While working for BIP she played professionally for 2 seasons in Europe, one year for OK Benedikt, in Maribor Slovenia and one for Eastborn Volco, in the Netherlands.  Prior to her European stint, Brooke had an illustrious career at UCSB where she led the Lady Gauchos to the Regional Finals of the NCAA Tournament three times. Rundle was Freshman of the Year and 1st Team All Conference in 1998 and went on to be voted All District and All Conference twice.  In 2000 she was named an NCAA Division 1 All-American.

Brooke is also the co-founding executive director of BIP’s non-profit called the Casa Llanta Fund. The Casa Llanta Fund’s mission is to empower marginalized communities by expanding access to sports, education, and employment in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico.

Brooke is the managing editor for BIP’s Blog. She also authored the volleyball mindset training book Headstrong and runs a mindset training program for volleyball players. Brooke is the first volleyball Ambassador for a LGBTQ+ non-profit organization called Athlete Ally.  She is originally from California, but resides in Denver, Colorado with her wife Hannah when she’s not traveling in Central America.

Nick Ptaschinski – Director of Player Management, Women’s Placements

Tony Westman – Director of Player Management, Men’s Placements

A veteran BIP Tour Coach and Scout, Tony is a Swedish citizen that has been a fixture in the international volleyball community since ’98. He has coached the Danish National Team, professional teams in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Austria and has had various American players on his teams over the years. He’s also spent several summers working university camps in the USA. He’s a great resource for BIP players because he understands both “the American mentality” and what’s expected and “normal” in Europe. Tony is a wealth of knowledge and connections for us with the teams in Scandinavia but also connected to teams across Europe and the rest of the volleyball world.

William “Bill” Kelly – Chief Financial Officer and Business Manager

After graduating from the US Naval Academy, Bill Kelly enjoyed a 20-year career with the Navy and finally ended it as the head of a computer test facility on Point Loma, California. At retirement the family moved to Santa Barbara so that Bill could take a job at Raytheon Company, which would lead to another retirement after 17 years. At that point Bill started a custom golf club company called Santa Barbara Golf Technologies which motto was “using technology for golf-game improvement!” With considerable business experience and his son’s need for financial support for the continued growth of Bring It Promotions, Bill and his wife, Nancy, decided to take on all the financial responsibilities for BIP. They look forward working with their son, Tim, as the company continues to thrive.

Steven Fenosik – Director / Puerto Rico

Our man in Puerto Rico, Steven has been dealing with the professional leagues since 1998. He’s in charge of all women’s recruiting services in Puerto Rico for BIP. Steven is also involved with all our Puerto Rico volleyball tours. He has done it all in volleyball, including extensive coaching work and being general manager for several men’s and women’s teams. In addition, he has coached and worked with formers United States Women’s Olympic Team members and other great NCAA athletes. He has as much experience with the Puerto Rican volleyball culture as anyone. Another area where Steven is involved is at the youth club level by supporting kids to get exposed to the collegiate recruitment process. Steven is an Ohio State alumni and was part of the Men’s Volleyball Team coaching staff at his alma mater. Aside from Volleyball, he has expertise in the financial risk management field.

Chris Chen – Director / China

Chris Chen graduated from the Beijing Sports University and played for “8-1” Men’s Volleyball Club and the Chinese National Team during his illustrious professional career. He started his own business is 2008 and since then has been involved in manufacturing, product sourcing, custom design and business consulting in his native China. With a strong volleyball background and connections across China, Chris has also been involved in many volleyball related projects between China, USA, and Canada as well. His strength is in the sports realm and this is what he enjoys most: the sports aspect of the business. He founded Nomax Inc. in 2010 to start a new adventure combining his sports background with his business sense. Chris is in charge of all BIP Tours to China, and is also spearheading our efforts to get Chinese club and federation teams to the USA, Canada, and Europe. Chris is also our point man in the country for placing players in the high-level Chinese leagues, where opportunity is increasing annually as more and more teams embrace the idea of hiring “foreigners” for the season.

Jirka Honzik – Director / Czech Republic

Jirka was born November 17, 1976 in Prague, Czech Republic. He has lived all but one year in the Czech Republic, and in that year (1994-1995), Honzik lived with Cory Solomon’s family in Salt Lake City and was a foreign exchange student at West High School. During his exchange year, Honzik played volleyball for Twin Peaks VBC. Upon his return from the U.S.A. Honzik finished his high school education in Prague, then enrolled in Prague University of Economics, studying international trade, the European Union, and international relations. Honzik played on the Czech Junior National Team as a setter and went on to win the Czech Junior Championships four consecutive years. He played many years for a Czech professional team called MFF Praha.

Jirka has been assisting with BIP tours to the Czech Republic since 1998. He was the USA Delegation Manager for the BIP team in Spring Cup 2001 (Brno) and he is always a crowd favorite among University Tour players. He assists not only with tours, but has also helped us represent some Czech National Team players and was pivotal to the early success of the International Recruiting Service. He is invaluable to Bring It Promotions and is one of the main reasons that we are as successful as we are today. Honzik speaks fluent Czech, English, and German. His favorite music group is Metallica and he enjoys all sports.

Erienne Barry 

A native to the Chicago area, Erienne Barry began her volleyball career at Club Fusion under Eric Schultz and attended two BIP tours during her time there. She started her college career as a setter for Western Michigan University before transferring to Boise State University where she played beach and indoor volleyball.

In 2018, she started the year by traveling with an American club team to Asia. In July, she coached and guided U18 teams to the 14th Annual Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia. In 2012 and 2013, as a club player, she traveled to Europe and Nicaragua, and is an alumnus of the GC as she played in the 7th Annual Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia in 2011.  

As a member of our team, Erienne is an assistant on the January European Exposure Tour while also planning and guiding European tours for university and club teams. She is also assisting with day to day operations and tournament preparation.

Sarah Ammerman

Sarah Ammerman was born in Denver, Colorado to a volleyball family. Her mother played college volleyball in Alaska, three of her brothers played collegiate volleyball, and her oldest brother Ryan won a National Championship with UC Irvine. After a standout junior career with Front Range Volleyball Club, Sarah signed to play with Texas A&M. After four very successful years (she was an All-American) Sarah decided to continue playing professional volleyball.

Upon graduation she headed to Puerto Rico to play for Ponce, and then made the move to Europe where she played two years with Nova KBM Branik Club in Maribor, Slovenia. In these two years Sarah lead the club to two Slovenian Cup titles, two Slovenian National Championships and one Middle European Volleyball Championship. Sarah then moved to Hamburg, Germany to play for VT Aurubis Hamburg in the 1st Division. Sarah started running tours with BIP in 2012 and will continue as a guide for many years to come.

Sarah has traveled all over Europe, played with the BIP/USA Development Program in China, and her experience as a top level USA college player mixed with her professional playing make her a valuable guide on our tours. You can follow her on her travel website or on Instgram @goingplaceswithguru.

Erin Leaser

Erin Leaser set for Virginia Tech from 2008 to 2012, during which she racked up a career total of 4, 672 assists.  In 2010 she was a contributing member of the BIP USA Team which competed in Brazil and in 2011 she played for the BIP USA Team in China.  After her collegiate career she played professionally for Barbar Ixelles in Brussels, Belgium from 2012 to 2014.

Following her professional European career, Leaser  worked as the coordinator  for USA Volleyball Indoor High Performance from 2014 to 015 where she organized and managed tryouts across the country for U.S. Youth and Junior National Teams and programs, as well as the 2015 USA Volleyball High Performance Coaches’ Clinic in Colorado Springs.  Leaser also served as Head of Delegation for the 2015 U.S. Youth National Team in Lima, Peru at the U18 World Championship where the team earned a  2^nd place finish.

In 2017 Erin racked up some firsts with BIP as she led the USA CNT to Thailand in May & Minnesota State to Japan in July. Erin was the Head of Delegation for the USA Volleyball Delegation to the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan in 2017 and is in charge of CNT, WUG, and Binh Dien (annual Vietnam Tournament) teams and events for BIP.

Melanie Gorter

Melanie started her volleyball career at Rolling Thunder VBC and was a collegiate athlete for Central College in Pella, Iowa. She participated in the 2015 BIP Women’s Firesale Exposure Tour in Maribor, Slovenia before continuing on a month-long trek through Europe. In the summer of 2016 she became a core member of the BIP team building rosters and running tours for the annual Global Challenge Tournament in Pula, Croatia as well as assisting on other tours around the world. When in the states, she handles logistics and creates itineraries for Chinese Professional Clubs coming to Chicago and the Midwest. She currently teaches in an urban high school and coaches club in Chicago.

Karmen “Kiki” Kocar

Karmen “Kiki” Kocar was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia and started playing volleyball when she was 12 years old. By 16 she was playing in Slovenia’s top league and has been playing professionally since 2003. She left Slovenia in 2005 to play her first season as a “foreigner” in Austria, and has since played with top professional clubs in France, Germany, and Croatia. She spent many years leading the Slovenian National Team as setter as well. Kiki is currently living in Maribor where she’s in a coaching program to eventually be a professional coach and has been helping with BIP Tours since 2008. She is fluent in English as well as Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian (yes, they’re different languages) and conversational in German.

Margaret “CJ” Sherman

CJ’s volleyball career began at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where she earned NAIA All Conference and All Region honors. A retiree from a highly successful collegiate head coaching career  (Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of South Carolina Aiken, and University of Montevallo), CJ has switched her focus to Jacksonville Juniors where she is the Recruiting Coordinator and Coach of the 17 National team.

She’s been married to Bill Sherman since 1988 and they have two beautiful daughters, Meghan and Kamryn.  Meghan has been on tours since she was 13, she played at the University of Tampa and was a 2x AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter, she played professional volleyball in Hungary and Sweden for five seasons.  Meghan married Daniel Magnusson in March 2016. Both Meghan and Daniel Magnusson coach collegiate volleyball in the USA. 

Kamryn has played on tours since she was 11 and played 3 years at NCAA 1 Clemson University graduating and taking her remaining eligibility to NCAA 2 Armstrong Atlantic State University where she was also a AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter. Kamryn teaches at PE at Jacksonville Country Day and Coaches at JJVA – Jacksonville Juniors as well as BIP Tours – New Years Bash and Global Challenge. Kamryn married Nick St Thomas in Dec 2019 and both coach at JJVA. 

Meghan Sherman

Meghan Sherman joined Bring it Promotions on her first tour as a 14-year-old traveling to Europe with Birmingham Volleyball Club in 2003. As a high school student, she continued to travel on summer tours and participated in the annual New Years Bash almost every year, and even joined ZOK Mislinja to compete in the 2006 European Global Challenge hosted in Maribor, Slovenia. She’s been on tours from Nicaragua to South Africa to Australia and everywhere in between. She played four-years at University of Tampa, earning All-American honors twice. Following her university’s European tour in 2010, Meghan led the Spartans to the NCAA Division II National Championship match. She continued playing volleyball overseas in Hungary and Sweden, before deciding to return to the University of Georgia to serve as the women’s volleyball graduate assistant and DataVolley scout-man. She has since returned to Europe pursuing a professional career in Sweden, and helps organize and run several BIP Summer All-Star Teams and Tours.

Anna Church

Anna Church was born in Kansas City and started playing volleyball when she was 8 years old. Watching her older sister playing club volleyball, Anna fell in love with the game. She played for the top clubs in the Kansas City area as well as attending Bishop Miege High School, leading her team to become 4x 5A State Champions. She continued her career at St. Louis University as an outside hitter and libero. In 2015, Anna transferred to the University of Kansas where she and her team made an appearance in the NCAA Final Four, losing to Nebraska, the eventual National Champions. When Anna found out that playing professionally was an option (with the bonus of travelling the world), it became her goal. Anna met Tim, Cory, and Kiki when the University of Kansas went on tour with BIP in 2015. She got back in touch following her graduation in Fall 2015 and went on the 2016 January Exposure Tour in hopes of finding a team. Her first contract was in France’s 3rd League as an outside hitter with ASVS. Anna played as a libero in the 2nd Bundesliga in Germany with SCU Emlichheim from 2017-2019 and is currently looking for her next team. Anna also travelled to Vietnam in 2018 with “Team BIP” for the Binh Dien Cup, losing to a Chinese professional team in the finals. Anna’s experience at the highest levels of volleyball and love of travel make her a great fit as one of BIP’s tour guides.

Alice Genna

Alice played for several junior and professional teams in Rome. In 2009, Alice won the Serie C regional championship with her team and the year after she played in Serie B with Roma 7 Volleyball team. In 2011, Alice was offered a full scholarship to play and study at North Carolina Central University in Division I NCAA. Alice moved to the United States and played for her school’s  team from 2011-2015 until she graduated and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Juvenile Justice. After college, Alice paused her volleyball career to obtain a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After working in New York for a year, Alice moved back to Italy where she is currently playing volleyball for a team in Rome. Alice comes from a volleyball family, as her mother is a coach, her brother plays professionally in Serie A2 with Roma Volley and her sister played college volleyball at LIU POST. In addition to volleyball, Alice enjoys reading and traveling the world to discover new cultures and traditions.  

Markéta Hanzlová

Markéta Hanzlová was born in Liberec, Czech Republic. Following her mother’s inspirational success in volleyball, she began volleyball at 9 years old. Hanzlová became a stand out player for the Czech Junior National Team. After graduating high school, Hanzlová began her volleyball collegiate career at North Idaho College in 2008. She led the team to the NJCAA National Tournament and placed 11th while earning the NJCAA All-American second team. In 2009, Hanzlova was named the NJCAA All-American first team and Player of the Year.  After NIC, Hanzlová transferred to the University of Arizona. In her two years, she assisted in their NCAA appearance in 2010 and 2011, while obtaining her degree in German Studies.  In 2012, Hanzlová returned to Prague, Czech Republic. She played professional volleyball for two years in a highly respected Czech league. Additionally, Hanzlová has a career in coaching sand volleyball for Club Domyno.

Erica Di Maulo

Erica was born in 1997 in Milan, Italy to a volleyball family. Her parents played volleyball at a professional level and her brother currently plays on a Serie B team in Milan. Erica started to play volleyball at the age of 10 and from 2011 to 2015, played for Orago Volley, a small but prestigious club near Varese, winning a u16 national championship in 2013. For her last year of high school, she moved to Turin to play on a B1 team. At the age of 19, she moved to New York City to play at St John’s University, competing in the Big East, where in 2016, she was named co-Freshman of the year and is currently a junior.

Olivia Rusek

Olivia Rusek was born in Chicago to her first generation immigrant parents from Poland, granting her dual American and Polish citizenship. She is fluent in English and Polish, and now also speaks basic German. She attended Miami University of Ohio and was a starting outside hitter all four years while playing D1 volleyball in the Mid-American Conference. Some of her accolades include: MAC Co-Player of the year, MAC Tournament MVP, First Team All-MAC, Academic All-MAC Team, Cincinnati Women’s Sport Association College Player of the Year, selected to the 2016 USA Collegiate National Team, 2 NCAA Tournament appearances, and All-MAC Freshman team 2014.  In 2016, Miami University participated in a Bring It tour to Berlin, Krakow, and Prague which she enjoyed very much, and inspired her to play volleyball abroad once she graduated. Olivia’s first pro contract was during the 2018-2019 season playing in the top Bundesliga for VC Tirol, in Innsbruck, Austria. Olivia enjoys spending time doing outdoor activities, reading, meeting new people, learning new cultures and languages, traveling, trying new foods.